Places Upon Places
by coveryoureyes
Summary: To many in the Enchanted Forest, Gav was an urban legend - the sorceress who could walk through dreams and dimensions. But she was real, and one of the only ones in Storybrooke who still remembered everything after the curse. It was too bad her husband thought she was dead, her daughter wouldn't recognize her, she was in an insane asylum, and only the mayor's kid believed her.
1. Chapter 1

_Enchanted Forest_

The rest of the day after the dagger went through the previous Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin felt an enormous rush of power. Zoso was dead and every bit of the previous Dark One's magic was rushing through him, twisting and making him something _new_ and _whole_ , something –

"Well aren't you a right piece of work. Fell into that one, didn't you? Played like a particularly predictable piece of music."

He whirled around and unthinkingly a ball of offensive magic burst from his palm, speeding towards the direction that the voice had come from. However, he saw the figure that had been speaking simply step to the side and flick it away from her.

"You'll have to get that bit under control quickly, I reckon. Wouldn't want to hurt your little sprog."

Rumpelstiltskin felt his every protective instinct flare, multiplied tenfold by the new rush of feelings he had been trying to deal with all day, however before he could lash out at what he perceived to be the threat to Bae she pushed off of the tree she'd been leaning against and walked toward him with a small smirk on her face.

"Touchy, touchy. That's another thing you'll have to tamper down if you want to last as the Dark One. That nifty little knife can be grabbed by anyone, as you _very well_ know. Provoking people to anger is both easy and fun, and anger will cause you to err."

Rumpelstiltskin regarded her warily. She clearly knew what he had done, knew about the dagger that now bore his name. She might have even been watching him long enough to have seen what led up to everything. Her demeanor was strange – not quite unhinged, but she seemed to be treating everything as if it was an amusing joke.

"What is it that you want?"

She snorted derisively and sank down onto the grass, crossing her legs and looking far too relaxed for the given situation in his opinion. When she motioned for him to sit down he couldn't have repressed his scoff even if he had wanted to. Instead of showing any offense, she laughed with a bit less of a mocking quality and shrugged, evidently unbothered by his mistrust.

"Clever of you. Though your line of questioning is distinctly _un_ -clever. Who I am is more important than my unperformed actions, don't you think? You see, I _want_ quite a few things. The ability to make decent seared tomatoes, a new saddle that somehow is as comfortable as my old worn one, and hair that is a bit more manageable in the heat."

Rumpelstiltskin opened his mouth, but she spoke over him. It was something he was already too used to, considering he had seen her for the first time less than five minutes before.

"Those things are irrelevant to our little chat, I know. But your question was not a wisely worded one. Lesson the first: words carry _power_. If someone gives you their word, magic can make it binding. Carefully craft your phrases – deals are easy to make and impossible to break, Stilt. I can call you Stilt, can't I?"

Rumpelstiltskin stared at her. She was being strangely forthcoming.

"Fine, then. Who are you, and what is it that you want from me specifically?"

Her smile became sharper and she uncrossed her legs, stretching them out in front of her. The strangeness of her apparel was more obvious than before. She wore loose dark breeches and a large tunic on her top, completely hiding any shapeliness she might have had. Her cloak was a dark blue, and none of what she wore betrayed her social standing or duties.

With an over-the-top amount of gallantry, she rose to her feet and theatrically bowed to him instead of curtsying – it was teasing, yes, but it didn't seem particularly malicious.

"There's that intelligence I'd been hoping you'd possess. As far as my name – I'm Vistravara Gavronson."

The name wasn't one that he recognized, until she finished her introduction with a darker look in her eye than she'd had a minute ago.

"It _is_ quite a mouthful, I know. Most people just call me Gav."

This – this could not be Gav. The nightmarish urban legend he had told Bae about when his young son had demanded scary stories. The elusive, shadowy figure who could walk through dreams during the night and at daybreak rose the dead.

"Much more attractive than most expect, I'm sure. No need to flatter me further, Stilt."

Rumpelstiltskin frowned at her lightheartedness but wasn't going to openly disagree with her on the chance that she was indeed exactly who she claimed to be.

"So _you're_ the famed necromancer. The musician, luring people away in the night."

Her smile in response was far too knowing for his taste when she responded, _"One_ of the musicians. You know a well as I do that there is another prancing about, smarmy brat that he is."

There was a fond look on her face that _did not_ match his own feelings towards the piper. Because there was nobody else that she could be talking about other than his father, or 'Peter Pan' as he was now known and her phrasing had made it clear that she knew they were somehow connected.

However instead of continuing to speak, the woman let out a high pitched whistle and said, "I'll be seeing you around, Stilt. Giving you an introduction to the dark side is the least I can do since you killed Zoso and released me from the enslavement charm he'd performed. I did not enjoy being at his beck and call."

Apparently hearing her whistle, her mount stepped out from the shadows. The creature that stood before him left no doubt whatsoever in his mind that the woman in front of him was actually the fabled 'Gav' as she'd claimed to be.

The creature had clearly been a horse at some point. However its skin was a withered dark grayish black and leathery while part of its right side lacked any flesh at all, the white skeleton standing out. A section of its skull was showing and one of its eyes was missing, but Gav walked up to it with a spring in her step, petting its flank softly and cooing at it while pecking it on the nose.

Without any help, she stepped up into a stirrup and mounted the horse-like creature.

"Good luck, Dark One. You'll be needing it if you're to survive the next few centuries. Now, I must be going. Places upon places upon places to be."

* * *

 _Storybrooke_

"How long have you deluded yourself into thinking I'll be in this room?"

Regina smirked but made sure her face maintained an expression of earnest concern when she replied, "I don't know what you mean. Are you referring to-"

She jerked back a step when the woman inside of the room threw herself against the door, slamming into it heavily with a face conveying rage as she glared at Regina through the large window covered with only a grate.

"You know _exactly_ what I am talking about, _your majesty_. No portals were opened - I would have known, of course – but I can't feel my magic nor any in the air. So, what. Have. You. Done?"

Regina tried to appear genuine and said in a slow voice, "I'm not royalty, you seem to be confused. I'm Mayor Regina Mills, and you're in Storybrooke, Maine. You were found acting unstable, and we had to move you into the hospital's psychiatric ward for your own good."

The woman on the other side of the door began laughing – a hysterical, twisted cackle that made Regina admittedly a little bit wary. Though he had never explained their back-story to Regina, Rumpelstiltskin himself had seemed careful around her. But Regina reminded herself that now in this world without magic, she was reduced to nothing.

"Oh, Mills, is it? How pathetically quaint! Your miller mother would _hate_ to know that after all of her trickery and scheming all you ever amounted to was a _mayor_. This is – this is hilarious!"

Regina clenched her teeth but kept her voice as even as she could when she said, "I'm sorry, Jane, but you're a very sick woman."

This seemed to catch the woman off guard, and her laughter halted immediately. As she lightly trailed her fingertips across the metal grate that separated them, she asked in a curious voice, "Why are you calling me 'Jane'? You've known of me your entire life. Your mother knew of me her entire life, her mother before her, and so on. Have you suddenly gone delusional to have forgotten who you're speaking to?"

A smug smile covered Regina's face and she made sure to be as condescending as possible when she answered, "You were found with no identification, raving about traveling through different dimensions. You were given the title 'Jane Doe'."

Annoyed, the woman immediately quipped, "Well, that's not at all correct. Now answer me, Regina. Come now, let's be clear – you have only lived this long because I've been too busy looking for your mother to seek you out and eviscerate you. I can bide my time for however long I need until my magic returns, but I've got things that require my attention."

At this, Regina finally let her facade fall entirely and a triumphant tone entered her voice. Her curse had _worked_. Well, on nearly everyone, seeing as the woman had retained her memories - but locking a now-powerless sorceress in a mental facility was simple once her magic had been stripped from her. The de-powered woman in front of her was a trophy that practically shouted her victory over all of the beings in the Enchanted Forest. She was an easily dealt with issue, and with the woman having been frantically searching for the family that wouldn't technically exist and ranting about magic in public, nobody would doubt that she should be locked away.

Oh, how the mighty Gav had _fallen_. For the legendary magic-wielder to have been made so low was an enormous ego boost to Regina.

"Things that require your attention? Yes, it was mentioned that you'd been looking for a man you claimed to be your husband as well as your daughter. However when we double checked our records we saw that the only man anywhere near Storybrooke whose description came close lives alone. There isn't any daughter in the picture, and certainly no wife, Jane."

Gav seemed to lose her composure upon hearing that, and all feigned nonchalance left her expression, replaced by strained worry.

"He was right beside me when it happened, and she was asleep in the room just next to us. If they aren't together - what did you do? Have you not done _enough_ to him already? I have to, have to – there's simply places upon places upon _places_ \- "

"You seem to be getting worked up. I'll go fetch a nurse to give you something to help keep you calm."

Gav began pounding on the door and seemed to be going down a different route entirely upon hearing about the fate of her now-cursed family.

"Don't you turn your back on me! Take me to them now and I'll owe you a favor."

Regina didn't plan on visiting Gav again. She'd needed to be sure that the sorceress was truly powerless, and after their conversation she was. Now that her curse was settling, the woman would be confined to the mental hospital. So with no little amount of malice in her voice she leaned forward and whispered to the other woman.

"Your little favors have no meaning here. _I won_. Your daughter has a new family now, and she wouldn't even recognize your face if she saw you. Your husband is nothing more than an insane hermit in the woods who believes his wife is dead, acting in a manner reminiscent of his days when he was as _mad as a hatter_."

Gav's mouth fell open in shock, but Regina had already begun walking away before she could respond. Just as she reached the front desk, the woman began screeching at her.

"I'll _kill you_! You're _dead_ when I get out of here, you whorish, desperate excuse for a queen! There will be nowhere for you to hide, you or your mother!"

Regina leaned against the counter at the nurse's desk and put on a fake expression when she said, "It's so sad, she's clearly delusional. She should probably be watched closely if she is already expressing such violent desires."

The nurse – Regina was sure she had been a woodland creature of some sort – replied in a nasally, high pitched tone that reeked of falsehood, "You're more than right, Mayor Mills. It's scary to think what she could have done if she hadn't been found right away. Going off about some fantasy of hers."

Regina tried to give off a simple vibe of gossiping when she whispered, "What exactly _was_ she saying?"

The nurse seemed delighted to be filling her in and said in an equally hushed tone, "It was so strange! She was insisting she was some sort of dimension-traveler looking for her family and introduced herself with a really long foreign name. It was like an episode of the X-Files!"

Regina nodded in return and quickly wrapped up the conversation before leaving. She had nothing to worry about. Her curse had worked, and Vistravara Gavronson would stay in this hospital as a mental patient for the rest of her days.


	2. Chapter 2

_Storybrooke_

Quite a number of people talked _at_ Gav her first few days in the psychiatric ward. Doctors, nurses, orderlies. They introduced themselves politely, but when they had asked for her name she'd told them to call her whatever they wanted, so _Jane Doe_ had stuck.

Gav didn't live through half a millennium being _stupid_. There had been a reason that the people in the town square had believed her to be insane when she told them who she was – so she'd decided to simply observe and try to figure out what was going on.

When she had escaped after her first week, the huntsman had tracked her down nearly immediately and restrained her with strange metal cuffs. To top off her indignation, the man didn't recognize her.

Gav had been admittedly enraged at that, considering she had helped the fool out of a tight situation or two in the Enchanted Forest. But it evidently wasn't his fault. The combination of this along with what the queen had been bragging about solidified her conclusion that the queen had performed a memory spell and transported nearly the entirety of the Enchanted Forest's population into a new dimension.

But that wasn't the worst part. This dimension was one that was _without magic_. Gav was a fighter, this was true – but only in combat that allowed spell work. She was decent at getting away, but dealing blows to one of the orderlies had resulted in her being restrained.

It was monotonous. Enough so that Gav longed for the time every night when she could sleep and dream. In the dream world she had been a god, but now dreams were nothing more than elusive, blurred visions in which she sometimes was awarded and tormented with glimpses of her husband and her daughter.

Oh gods, she missed them so much. Every second she longed for her family to be reunited. But Regina's curse had evidently worked on everyone, and Gav knew that she had not been lied to by the queen.

Her daughter and husband wouldn't recognize her, even if Gav could find a way back to them. She only hoped that they were safe, with the false memories and identity the queen had given them. For now, the only thing Gav could do for her family was bide her time and amass as much information as she could on the non-magical realm she was now confined to, so she could eventually try to regain her magic and reverse the curse.

After all, she had all the time she needed now, in this strange place where it stood still.

* * *

 _25 Years Later_

"My name is Henry. What's your name? My mom said not to talk to strangers, but if you tell me who you are you don't really count as one anymore, right?"

Gav found herself in a very peculiar, entertaining position.

The child had burst into the exam room she was currently in while waiting for Frankenstein to enter and deliver the results of her strep-throat test. Gav had been the perfect patient the last decade, and the nurses in the ward hadn't seen the harm in allowing 'Jane' to be escorted to the doctor and picked back up without an orderly left behind to breathe down her neck.

All Gav had to do was begin lying and telling the psychiatrists what they wanted to hear for her to be upgraded to a gold-star patient. She was given a bit of freedom and marked down from a violent flight risk to a non-violent but tragically confused woman.

Watching the curse's effect on people was entirely bizarre and perhaps would have been humorous if it didn't effect her own life to the degree it did. When she had first asked four years after landing in Maine if she could be moved to an out-patient program the doctors and nurses had all gone a bit fuzzy in the head. When they had answered with a sunny smile that she had only just begun treatment, she knew it wouldn't be worth trying again.

For now, she waited. In the last decade she'd been driven a few places around the town, and each moment outside of the ward was like a breath of air after she'd been suffocating.

But now this precocious little child was bustling about in a truly hilarious display of unintended ego. He was cute, and the first child she had interacted with in years – though he looked a few years younger than her daughter, Gav was fiercely reminded of her in his raised eyebrows and joyfully expectant expression. Gav was curious as to who he had been in the Enchanted Forest before the queen's curse.

She made a foolish decision, one she knew she might regret. Gav decided to be _honest_.

With a voice made hoarse from sickness, she responded to Henry and said, "My name is very long, and I never liked it much as a child, so I'm called Gav."

Instead of continuing the conversation from a distance, the boy walked up to the examination table and hopped up, quickly settling into a cross-legged position and staring at Gav with bald fascination.

"You're named after _Gav_? But he's one of the bad guys!"

Gav laughed at that, though the sound hurt her throat and transformed into a dry cough. Oh yes, she had seen the film incarnation of herself during movie night at the ward. A cartoon creature with a blue cloak drawn over the head, its face never revealed, though the low, manly voice was a bit insulting in its inaccuracy.

She supposed it could have been worse.

"No, I'm not named after the character. Gav _is_ my name, though. Do you like watching Disney films? Which is your favorite?"

He took her question very seriously, evidently, and pondered it for a few minutes while muttering at himself. Finally, he seemed to settle on four different films, counting them off on fingers he held in the air.

"Mulan, Robin Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. How about you?"

Gav smirked at his answers, thinking over those who she knew in the Enchanted Forest whose likeness was depicted. She had seen almost every Disney film in the ward, including those four. She was quite certain Regina had somehow made sure that Disney films were always shown on movie nights, the vindictive harpy.

"I personally like The Little Mermaid, even if the mermaid makes an awful deal. Really, the witch presents her with an enormous contract, doing perfectly legitimate business, and the girl signs it without even _reading it!_ Who does that?"

Henry squinted at her, but before she could ask why he blurted out, "I thought you were going to say Sleeping Beauty, since you look like her."

Gav tried to call to mind who exactly Aurora was – she'd heard of the chit, but only vaguely remembered catching a glimpse of an infant at a christening she wasn't supposed to have attended.

"That's very sweet of you to say, kind sir. Does that mean you're a dashing prince?"

He blushed horribly at her joking gallantry and seemed to get a bit shy, so Gav thought she'd spare him the embarrassment and went on to say, "So, what brings you to the doctor, Henry? Any horrific maladies?"

The boy pouted, and in the melodramatic tone only a child can truly produce he lamented, "My mom had to come and visit someone but she says I'm not allowed, so I ran away from my babysitter. My mom is mean."

Gav paused for a moment, debating her actions, before she allowed herself to reach over and pat Henry consolingly on the knee.

"I'm sure she has a good reason. We mothers are at times a bit strict."

He immediately honed in on her phrasing and said, "You're a mom? Are you married? How many kids do you have? How old are they? What are their names?"

Gav was entirely bemused at his enthusiasm and responded to his questions in order.

"Yes, I'm a mother. I'm married and I have one daughter, who is eleven."

Memories were flooding over Gav with startling strength. Roses, jigsaw puzzles, Jefferson - oh god, _Jefferson,_ and the first time she had laid eyes on the lost little girl in blue who would become her daughter.

To her annoyance she now felt the tightness in her chest that usually preceded tears. Dear God, she was _Gav the Necromancer_ – a villain. If she got weepy every time she was around children there would be no chance of remaining strong enough to take down the queen.

And oh, was Gav ready to take that bitch out.

But there was a child in front of her who happened to be the first person to look at her like she wasn't mad, so she finished answering his questions.

"She goes by her middle name, Grace. But her first name is Alice."

* * *

 _If you hadn't yet realized, this will feature an AU background for Jefferson and Grace._


	3. Chapter 3

_Enchanted Forest_

Gav looked at the floor as she shrugged on her trousers, trying to see where her socks had ended up. She had on only her chemise and had shoved her brassiere into her cloak's pocket, which she'd gathered up into her arms already.

The man whose home she was in was sprawled across the bed still, sleeping deeply with a pillow covering nearly his entire face. It was a pity – he had such a cute face.

Gav wasn't a stranger to one night stands, but she typically had them when she was in other realms or parts of the Enchanted Forest far from her home, where there was no chance of running in to her partners at a later time. This was only half an hour away on horseback. But she had been a bit drunk and this man had been incredibly charming, all messy hair and sharp grins, so she had dragged him from the tavern and insisted on getting to know him better.

So very, very worth it.

But now she was in a bit of a conundrum. Her mount was a nearly quarter mile away, and if she attempted to walk in her boots _without_ those mysteriously placed socks she would have horrific blisters. Healing magic was not Gav's specialty, so she'd actually have to deal with them. Ugh.

Gav dropped the cloak to the ground, having giving up on simply looking about. Just as she was about to kneel down to check beneath the bed, a croaking voice echoed out from beneath the sheets.

"Running out on me?"

Gav startled a bit and met the man's gaze, finally saying in a genuinely curious tone, "Did you expect anything different? Jefferson, was it?"

He sat up completely and the sheet fell into his lap where it pooled and oh, hello muscular chest. Letting out an enormous yawn, he stretched his arms over his head and combed a hand through truly ridiculous bed head before responding.

"Yeah. And your name starts with a V. Didn't hear it right last night and didn't bother asking for clarification."

Gav smiled at him, somewhat amused by his bluntness and said in a dry voice, "A five syllable word this early in the morning? Consider me impressed."

Jefferson smiled back at her, unbothered by the teasing and said, "I would have thought you'd be impressed after last night anyway."

Gav couldn't hold in a laugh at that. She _liked_ this man's sense of humor, and maintaining a sense of normalcy after a random night of sex was a very pleasant surprise.

"It was alright, I suppose."

She spoke with a lofty, clearly mocking tone and Jefferson laughed in response before lifting an eyebrow and saying, "You must be a very tough critic."

Gav let her expression shift to one that showed her amusement before saying, "I'm searching for my socks. Would you happen to know where they wound up?"

Jefferson shrugged and pulled back the sheet, sliding off of the bed himself. His naked body was visible for a moment before he pulled on his own trousers. Running his hand through his hair again – adding to the fluffy, strangely endearing look – he scanned the room.

"No idea. You could always look after breakfast."

Gav startled a bit but her voice didn't sound anything but curious when she asked, "Breakfast?"

Jefferson looked a bit embarrassed when he picked his own shirt up off of the ground and put it back on before replying, "Well, I've been… out of the area for a bit. There's bread, jam, and apples."

Gav felt a rush of fondness. Which was a _very bad thing_. Her lifestyle did not allow for any close personal connections. She'd learned how awful it was to become attached to a mortal after she'd been forced to watch her sister age and die. Gav had only kept in contact with two generations of her sister's descendants before deciding it wasn't good for her.

But breakfast couldn't hurt, could it? It wasn't like she would get attached.

* * *

 _Storybrooke_

"I don't think my mom wants me to have any friends."

Gav frowned as she looked at Henry who was sitting beside her on the park bench. She had learned in the year that they had been running into each other that he was a bit peculiar, but she didn't see any reason the eight-year-old wouldn't have friends.

Gav truly had no idea how the rascal had wormed his way into her life. To be honest, it was most likely her own longing to be around a child. Grace's arrival had been a blessing. The girl had saved her, in a way - grounded Gav to reality in a way her husband unfortunately had been unable to. Running into the tiny girl who was lost in the hedge maze and barely more than a toddler during a routine job in Wonderland was unexpected to say the least. And Gav had surprised even herself when she'd decided to take her in. She would deny it until the day she died, but the first time Grace had called her "mama" she'd _wept_ , to her utter embarrassment.

Every time she spoke with Henry she was equally invigorated and devastated afterwards. He was much more outspoken than her daughter but had the same enthusiasm towards life that Grace had maintained. Grace was so very shy, but it made Gav even more proud when she was loud around herself and Jefferson. It was an enormous change from her initial refusal to even tell them her first name. Wheedling her middle name out of her had been a long process, and by the time she'd told them Grace had decided to abandon the name 'Alice.'

But for now, her daughter could not be with her. So Gav focused back on the child she was with, forcing herself to stop reminiscing.

"That sounds awful."

And – okay, that wasn't appropriate to say. So before Henry opened his mouth Gav quickly continued speaking.

"But it probably isn't true, ya know. You think a mother would want her little sprog to never branch out? Blasphemy, young sir!"

Privately, Gav worried about Henry. If he didn't have many friends for the entire time Stroybrooke had been frozen for nearly twenty-six years he had to have been exceptionally lonely. Though he wouldn't have truly registered the passage of the decades while stuck in the curse, Gav understood a bit more why he would have longed for friendship and sought her out.

To be honest, his persistence was absurd. He'd run in to her by chance a month after their first encounter during the outing the ward had every two weeks and demanded to know the schedule, showing up when she was allowed to roam. He'd revealed that he had not told anyone about her and would not in the future, so she had not seen any harm in spending time with the child.

It was nice, speaking to someone who actually knew her _name_. He hadn't asked about it any further, accepting her answer in the way children often did when adults said something. He'd even heard one of the orderlies call her "Jane" and continued to use what she had told him.

Henry's response to her words startled her and Gav felt a flash of anger at herself for once more slipping into daydreams when she was in the middle of conversing with someone.

"I think – I think she only wants me to have her. She'd not _all_ bad, but she's not nice to anybody else."

Gav nodded along when she saw the upset expression on the boy's face. There wasn't much she could say in response. She had no idea who the boy had been in the Enchanted Forest, nor who his mother was in this cursed land.

"I wish that she didn't act in a way that made you feel like that."

It was the best she could do, and Henry seemed mollified. The sudden change of topic was disconcerting when he blurted out, "Where is your accent from?"

Gav froze. The closest thing she could really assign to the sound of her own speech was a Russian accent, and to be honest she was surprised he had picked up on the faint lilts to her voice at all. After all, when she had jumped to the Enchanted Forest and decided it would be the realm she would return to between dimension jumps she'd quickly learned the common tongue. Nobody in the Enchanted Forest knew the language of her dimension, and none had so much of heard of it when she'd asked around. Gav had spoken the common tongue in the Enchanted Forest long enough to have trained almost all of the inflection of her first language out of her voice.

Gav was silent for a minute or two, and Henry quietly sat beside her though she knew he must be bursting with impatience. One of their earlier encounters when he'd pestered her had caused her to finally say in a harsh and firm tone that at times she needed silence. What with not speaking to very many people for twenty-five years, Gav had grown used to staying in her own mind, and Henry had caught on quickly.

Gav hadn't 'lost it' exactly while in solitary, and being released into the main part of the asylum that allowed her to interact more with others had helped immensely. But even in the Enchanted Forest people had thought of her as… odd. Living for hundreds of years could do that to a person; she'd begun to view life as a game, at least until she married Jefferson and brought Grace into their home.

But this question might be it. Gav thought about it for yet another minute, weighing her options. When she finally spoke, it was in a serious tone.

"Henry, I'm going to tell you a story about magic. And it is a story you cannot tell anyone. Swear it?"

The boy nodded eagerly in response and quickly said, "Cross my heart and hope to die." Gave smiled and in response tried to make her tone serious when she replied, "stick a needle in my eye."

Gav took a deep breath and released it, preparing to _finally_ talk about what had existed before this bizarre cursed town, even if it was only a story to entertain a little boy.

"There was once a girl who had magic. But as she grew into a woman, everyone in her village thought she was _strange_ , and they called her _dark_. So when a powerful man offered her power beyond her belief – well. How could she have possibly turned it down?

After wandering through dreams and worlds for many years, she grew a bit lonely. So the sorceress took charge of her own life and decided that she should take on the world by herself and venture -"

Vistravara Gavronson spoke for a long, long time.


	4. Chapter 4

_Enchanted Forest_

"You said you didn't know if you would ever want kids."

Gav stared at Jefferson and tried to figure out what his expression meant. True, she had never particularly wanted to be a mother. But on the other hand, Jefferson stared wistfully at fathers with their kids whenever they went to the market, so she'd believed he would be accepting of her decision.

The Wonderland girl who had clearly been lying when she said her name was Grace was asleep in the room next to them that had been used as storage thus far, unaware that her future was being discussed on the other side of a wall.

"She was just… so _little_ and didn't slobber. When I checked the portal she'd come through the time difference was one hundred and twelve years, her family would have been dead. And… I thought she was cute. She didn't have the strange squishy face that babies always do."

Jefferson groaned and seemed exasperated when he said, "You couldn't just bring home a dog? Fuck, this is a kid. A miniature human being. Do you know what this means?"

Gav rolled her eyes and immediately countered, "She's house-trained! What could really be too hard about the whole thing?"

Jefferson stared at her and seemed honestly baffled when he said, "You have to be joking. Do you know _anything_ about being a parent?"

Gav was extremely offended. Of course she knew what a parent did. Granted, her last experience was with her own parents who had been alive four hundred years ago but still –

"She needs to be protected, okay? She was all alone and lost and I didn't want her to be scared anymore-"

Gav was cut off when Jefferson stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. As much as Gav wanted to deny it, being held was perhaps the most comforting thing in the world at the moment.

"I get it. Honestly, this doesn't constitute a terrible decision. But we have a young girl in our house that you've clearly taken a liken to. I'm happy to see how it turns out – she kind of looks like you. _Do not_ get attached though. She might have to be returned or given to a family that doesn't constantly travel through dimensions."

Jefferson kept his expression stern, but Gav could see that his resolve was wavering. With no mind paid to the proper order of things, Gav launched herself at Jefferson, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist in glee before saying, "I know, I know, I know! We'll be great though, I swear!"

When she pulled back and looked at him, Jefferson had a small smile on his face that he was clearly trying to suppress.

Just like that, Gav's family grew.

* * *

 _Storybrooke_

"It's real, isn't it?"

Gav stared at Henry as he spoke. The boy had been perceptive in the time that they had been a part of the queen's curse.

But at the moment Gav was frozen. She had told Henry the barest bones of her own life story –something only a handful of individuals in all of the worlds had known. Looking at the boy she'd spoken to the last three years who now faced her, she tried to keep her face impassive.

"What is real, kind sir?"

Henry immediately cut through her false pleasantries and said in a sharper tone, "Everything you told me. It's real."

If he'd reached this conclusion… to think that he was still speaking to her… Gav truly hadn't held back. She'd told him _everything_ – being the errand girl for a twisted madman, raising the dead, walking through dreams to extract information, tearing open dimensional portals to retrieve whatever her employers wanted. Gav froze, but before she had to prompt some sort of explanation from Henry he pulled a book out of his bag. The book was bound with leather but before Gav could look closer Henry opened it to a page he had placed a bookmark in.

Gav stared incredulously as an illustration of her original face was on the page, depicting her shaking hands with the original Dark One in what she knew had been the deal that changed her life.

Henry cut in to her internal crisis when he asked in a naïve tone, "Why does she look different in different parts of the story?"

Fav didn't see the harm in lying, so she answered, "When a girl has magic, she might as well make herself beautiful."

Henry immediately cut in, however and said, "Yeah, but I don't _get it_. Gav was super powerful; why would she care about what she looked like?"

Gav tried her best not to cringe. In all honesty, she had been a very plain girl before Zosa had enhanced her magic. Twisting her own face into something beautiful had been easy. But now it was more embarrassing than anything else that changing her face had been one of the first major feats of magic she'd performed instead of something more fantastically impressive.

"Gav may have cared because beautiful people are often treated better. She was young and somewhat stupid."

Henry didn't answer her and instead flipped through a few pages of the book that had remained in his lap. When he halted on a specific page, Gav heard herself gasp before unconsciously leaning in and running her fingertips down the page.

There was an illustration of Grace on Jefferson's shoulder's while Gav stood beside them, laughing in her signature blue cloak with the face she now wore and had for the last few centuries.

With tears in her eyes, Gav turned to Henry and managed to say, "How did you – how did you come across this?"

Henry beamed in response, likely enjoying the fact that his conjectures had not been immediately refuted before he said, "Gav was always a bad guy in the stories, but really she's one of the good guys in Alice in Wonderland. You're her. _You're_ a good guy. I should have figured it out there was magic going on sooner when I was the only kid getting older."

Gav didn't move. It felt as though her breath had left her lungs and wouldn't return. She couldn't have - surely although she hadn't even _considered_ the possibility it wouldn't have blinded her to the something like this, to evidence of his growing older that should have been obvious. When Gav finally spoke her voice came out thin and nearly strangled, studying his face closely as she questioned him.

"Henry, I need you to tell me what you mean."

The boy shrugged and broke eye contact when he looked down as he flipped through the book, answering her with a voice that was _entirely too casual_ for what he was saying.

"Well my mom adopted me, and I've been growing up when nobody else did. Sometimes it wouldn't seem weird, though."

Gav knew what was going on. But she had to be sure, so she asked in a whisper, "What is your mother's name?"

"Regina. She's the mayor. C'mon I had to have told you that _ages_ ago."


End file.
